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The nightmare is coming true....help!!

R

roadhouse

Aphids have taken over my wonderful little seedlings and are quickly killing them! What can I use on them that will kill the aphids but not kill the plants??
 
I have 2 store bought products: Safer's trounce and one called AIM(made from daisies) from NU GRO-IP, they work immediately for about 2 weeks or so. I have tried my own homemade with dish soap, cayenne and garlic but the AIM worked the best.
 
screw all the soaps and other crap, the first time I had aphids I was told to use this and that and after 4 different chemicals about $30 and 2 months of spraying guess what? They came back. The sprays will kill every aphid it hits, but even if you miss only a few they will just come back again and again. The only permanent fix was ladybugs. Natures balance. I went down to the local ace hardware got a bag of a few hundred for 6 bucks. Put them in the fridge for a few hours sprayed my plants with a 1/4 ratio of coke and water and poured them over the plants just after sun down. Having them in the fridge puts them into a hibernation, spraying the plants with coke helps keep them around, and releasing them after sun down encourages them to make a home on their new plants instead of flying away. Within a few days every plant was almost clean of aphids. Weeks later I had hundreds of little lady bug larvae monitoring my plants and making sure the aphids didn't come back! I have yet to have a problem with them. If I see them coming back in numbers $4.00 and a trip to the local ace is all I need to do.
 
Ladybugs are great but from my experience they aren't very helpful in the fall/Winter. They naturally like to hibernate in cracks during the winter and aren't too interested in eating much. Maybe a warmer climate would be different, its quite cool in my house.

I like to rotate my arsenal for full effect. I rotate between soaps(insecticidal or normal non detergent soaps), oils(neem or other horticultural oils), pyrethrum(Natural insecticide), garlic/chile sprays, and even plain water from a high pressure hose.

You'll likely never kill them all but spraying can keep them under control until its warm enough for predators to be effective
 
Neem and ivory soap 1 teaspoon of each in 1 qt of warm water every two weeks works great for me, spary every two days to start,when gone every two weeks works to keep then away.
 
I've used just about every organic aphid killer out there including making my own. In my experience they work if they come in contact with the bug. However they have zero staying power. Couple of days later the aphids are back like they didn't miss a beat. You only need one survivor as they reproduce via parthenogenesis--don't need males and females.

So this year I crossed the organic line and brought out the chemical attack. I used ORTHO Max Lawn & Garden Insect Killer. It is a concentrate. I sprayed every plant from top to bottom. That was around the middle of June. I never seen another aphid for the rest of the season. I will use this until the organic geniuses come up with something that works better.

Good luck roadhouse.
 
POTAWIE said:
Ladybugs are great but from my experience they aren't very helpful in the fall/Winter. They naturally like to hibernate in cracks during the winter and aren't too interested in eating much. Maybe a warmer climate would be different, its quite cool in my house.
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That's a good point. I've only had to use them in the heat of the winter this year and once is all I needed. I can't recall the last time I found a ladybug on my plants, but the good thing is I can't find any aphids either.

patrick said:
So this year I crossed the organic line and brought out the chemical attack. I used ORTHO Max Lawn & Garden Insect Killer. It is a concentrate. I sprayed every plant from top to bottom. That was around the middle of June. I never seen another aphid for the rest of the season. I will use this until the organic geniuses come up with something that works better.

Good luck roadhouse.
Click to expand...

Is the Ortho safe to use on plants where your consuming the fruit? I tried just about every soap / organic spray I could find, and almost went into that direction, but decided to give lady bugs a try first and that worked out great.

Plus it's pretty exciting watching a few hundred ladybugs to town on the aphids. I watched 1 ladybug eat at least a dozen in less than an hour. It's pretty cool if you get close up. One thing I didn't realize is how fast those aphids run when a lady bug is close by.
 
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